Rotherham Westgate railway station was the eastern terminus of the five-mile-long

Sheffield and Rotherham Railway The Sheffield and Rotherham Railway was a railway line in England, between the named places. The North Midland Railway was being promoted but its route was planned to go through Rotherham and by-pass Sheffield, so the S&RR was built as a connecti ...

, the first passenger-carrying railway in the

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

area. In central

on the eastern bank of the River Don, it was a single-platform terminus that opened on 31 October 1838 and closed on 4 October 1952.

History

The original station building was a substantial stone affair on Westgate, from where passengers had to cross the tracks on a level pedestrian crossing to access the platform. At the end of the 19th century, this situation was remedied by giving the station access to Main Street and building a temporary wooden station building there with direct access to the platform. This became known by the townsfolk as the "Rabbit Hutch" and was subject of some local complaint as not being fit for a town as important as Rotherham. The old station building became the

GPO GPO may refer to: Government and politics * General Post Office, Dublin * General Post Office, in Britain * Social Security Government Pension Offset, a provision reducing benefits * Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a Thai state enterpris ...

and a

labour exchange An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...

, and finally passed back into railway hands as a line control office.Pixton (2001) The river was crossed by a wooden bridge with seven spans over which the station platform extended, and then the line passed over the

River Don Navigation The River Don Navigation was the result of early efforts to make the River Don in South Yorkshire, England, navigable between Fishlake and Sheffield. The Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden had re-routed the mouth of the river in 1626, to impr ...

on a three-arched bridge, the centre arch of which was long and made of iron. This section of canal was owned by the South Yorkshire Railway Company, which became part of the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

in 1864, and in order for its line from Mexborough to Sheffield to pass under the Westgate line, the canal below Ickles lock was diverted to join the river, and part of the Eastwood Cut below Rotherham lock was diverted to the east in the same year. The original canal bed was then filled in, and the tracks were laid along its course.Hadfield (1973), pp. 413–414 It was in this section that, in 1871, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway built Rotherham Central. The line ran immediately south of

Millmoor The Millmoor Ground, commonly known as Millmoor, is a football stadium in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was the home ground of Rotherham County F.C. between 1907 and 1925 and then its successor Rotherham United F.C. until 2008. The ...

, the former ground of

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

, leading to its southern stand being named the 'Railway End'. Following the opening of the

North Midland Railway The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham (Masbrough) and Leeds in 1840. At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what ...

between

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

and

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, the new through Masbrough station, later

Rotherham Masborough Rotherham Masborough railway station was the main railway station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England from the 1840s until 1987, when most trains were rerouted via Rotherham Central. It had four platforms, with a large sandstone stati ...

, was opened about half a mile from the town centre. A junction was laid connecting this north–south line to the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway at

Holmes Holmes may refer to: Name * Holmes (surname) * Holmes (given name) * Baron Holmes, noble title created twice in the Peerage of Ireland * Chris Holmes, Baron Holmes of Richmond (born 1971), British former swimmer and life peer Places In the ...

, giving the North Midland access to the Wicker terminal of the S&R in Sheffield. The S&R eventually became part of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

following amalgamations in 1844. The fact that the Midland also operated the much larger Masborough station could have relegated Westgate to being a backwater, but Westgate was much more central, and the standard service pattern on the Midland line after 1870, was for some Sheffield–Nottingham, Sheffield–Derby and Sheffield–Manchester local trains to start back from Westgate and run through Sheffield Midland, calling at all stations; this kept Westgate a busy and important station right up to its closure.

Closure

By the middle of the twentieth century, trains to Westgate still passed over the 1830s vintage wooden bridge to call at the supposedly temporary wooden station buildings. It was the need to replace the by now decrepit bridge that prompted BR to close the station on 4 October 1952. At the end of its life, passengers were not allowed on to the portion of platform on the bridge and trains were not allowed to stand on the bridge. Freight continued for a few years until the bridge was in no fit state to carry any trains and was demolished. The station lay derelict for nearly two decades, with the wooden buildings being used to store dismantled market stalls (the site of the town's market was opposite the station at the time), until 1970 when the site was cleared and new Post Office sorting centre built. In the late 1960s the remaining part of the railway alignment was severed by a new road, but west of this the branch still remains serving

C F Booth C F Booth Ltd is a family-owned scrap metal and recycling business based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. Operations Clarence Frederick Booth founded the business in 1920, as a metal purchaser and trader. Over the company's history, t ...

's scrapyard, albeit now at ground level rather than on an embankment.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Aerial photo from the mid-1950s
shows the derelict Westgate station bottom left, after its closure to passengers but before its closure to freight. Disused railway stations in Rotherham Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952